You are here

FAU Collections » FAU Research Repository » FAU Theses and Dissertations

unguarded gate: Infiltrations of patriarchy in Sheri S. Tepper's "The Gate to Women's Country"

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
1999
Summary:
Throughout The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri S. Tepper covers the patriarchal structures of her imagined society with a veneer of feminism. The novel contains many hallmarks of a feminist utopia, such as a concern for the environment and a distrust of men and technology; yet all are undercut by the traditional structures that she retains of class, military machismo, sexuality, and motherhood. An attempt to read The Gate to Women's Country as "a fortifying tonic" (Simmons 22) leads one instead into the "politics of despair" ("Reconsiderations" 44), as one realizes that Tepper is exaggerating, not resolving, the problematic relations that continue to exist between genders. Too perceptive to be overly optimistic about "surmounting humanity's most dangerous flaws" (Miller 15), Tepper's dystopian novel ultimately acknowledges that the genetic solutions of "Women's Country" are nearly futile. She leaves the struggling utopian and dystopian forces of the novel unresolved and men and women in perpetual conflict.
Title: The unguarded gate: Infiltrations of patriarchy in Sheri S. Tepper's "The Gate to Women's Country".
1212 views
1107 downloads
Name(s): Zitner-Crawford, Thorun.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
McGuirk, Carol, Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1999
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 89 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Throughout The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri S. Tepper covers the patriarchal structures of her imagined society with a veneer of feminism. The novel contains many hallmarks of a feminist utopia, such as a concern for the environment and a distrust of men and technology; yet all are undercut by the traditional structures that she retains of class, military machismo, sexuality, and motherhood. An attempt to read The Gate to Women's Country as "a fortifying tonic" (Simmons 22) leads one instead into the "politics of despair" ("Reconsiderations" 44), as one realizes that Tepper is exaggerating, not resolving, the problematic relations that continue to exist between genders. Too perceptive to be overly optimistic about "surmounting humanity's most dangerous flaws" (Miller 15), Tepper's dystopian novel ultimately acknowledges that the genetic solutions of "Women's Country" are nearly futile. She leaves the struggling utopian and dystopian forces of the novel unresolved and men and women in perpetual conflict.
Identifier: 9780599537149 (isbn), 15720 (digitool), FADT15720 (IID), fau:12476 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1999.
Subject(s): Tepper, Sheri S--Gate to women's country
Tepper, Sheri S--Criticism and interpretation
Patriarchy
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15720
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.